Plans to redevelop the abandoned Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City New Orleans has stalled once more. What’s next for the hospital campus, which has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina, remains unknown.
Thomas Ecker, the president of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization, told WWL’s Newell Normand that there’s no animosity between his group and the property’s owners. Ecker said the process of finding funding has caused the hospital redevelopment process to stall.
“The tide now is that they don’t feel that their initial interest is going to be met by turning it into a retirement home, if you will, or a facility for the elderly population,” Ecker said. “They may have to look in a different fashion, which may be, perhaps, apartments—I’m not sure about condos—maybe a mix of commercial and residential. All of that is up in the air, but it’s up in the air now because attempts for other things have stalled or failed, so what options do they have?”
Ecker says the hospital property’s owners will do what they can to redevelop the land because, for them, time equals money.
“They’re still sitting on a property, especially three acres of property of prime real estate that I’m sure maintaining will come from their bottom line, whatever taxation will come from their bottom line, so they want to flip this into commerce in one form or another.”
Until that time comes, Ecker says the building will continue to be a blight on the neighborhood and will continue to attract people and behaviors that will negatively impact Mid-City.
“From the perspective of the residents, they see a languishing building. They see what could be empty promises depending on whether they’re optimistic or cynical. You are seeing that there are people going in and out as they wish.”
Listen to Newell Normand’s full interview with Ecker below.
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